Kukla's Korner Hockey

What the Flames need is to find a style that blends their speed and skill with the edge they used to have.
“We want to be a hard-working team that comes at you and doesn’t give you anything free,” said Tony Amonte.
Fine in theory, but unless they work together to create that scenario there are too many free rides for the opposition like the one Detroit got in Game 1.
Let’s not mince words—the Flames were humiliated.

Evgeni Malkin has been in playoffs before and figured he knew what it is like to chase a championship at this time of year.
But nothing in the Russian Super League prepared Malkin for what he experienced in the Penguins’ 6-3 loss to Ottawa in Game 1 of their opening-round series Wednesday.
The pace was faster, the hitting harder, the passions higher than anything he remembered from his days with Metallurg Magnitogorsk.
“He said playoff intensity in Russia does not go as high as it is here,” said Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar, Malkin’s friend, countryman and landlord. “He’ll probably need some adjustment.”

Wait till Game 3 in Dallas!
Tomorrow, they’ll be following an afternoon NBA basketball game in the American Airlines Centre. And while game time is set for 8:30 p.m. central time, there’s wagering among Dallas scribes about what time the game between the Stars and Vancouver Canucks might actually start.
There’s great debate if they can take out the boards and get the building turned over in time to drop the puck on time and there’s absolutely no debate whatsoever about how brutal the ice is going to be.
“Horrendous,” said Daryl Reaugh, the former netminder who is the colour commentator on the Dallas broadcasts.

Since the Sabres games are usually the highest-rated programs of the week on cable, you might expect Time Warner and the Sabres to accelerate HD coverage.
Gordon Harp, the top local Time Warner executive, explained this week that the issue with HD is available bandwidth capacity. He added that other than a handful of Sabres games, the programming on Versus isn’t appealing enough to devote to HD daily with the current bandwith capacity.
Harp said MSG in HD isn’t available off the satellite but T-W has looked at bringing it in through its fiber system.

The Islanders played soft and defensive in Game One, and it got them nowhere. They need to come out of their shell and engage the Sabres in a game of speed and finesse. That’s a dangerous strategy against the Sabres. But the Isles feel emboldened to open things up when DiPietro is back there covering for them.
“You can’t change your game just because it’s playoff hockey,” said Jason Blake. “The Sabres are the best four-line team in the league by far. What are you going to do, watch them skate around with the puck all day? We have to play the way we did when we won hockey games. We have to be more aggressive.”
Blake said the Isles are more confident with DiPietro in net. He even compared DiPietro with Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy and other elite goalies.

Ten games into Brendan Shanahan’s return from the concussion that sidelined him for 31 days, the Rangers’ winger isn’t yet the same player he was before violently colliding with the Flyers’ Mike Knuble on Feb. 17. He’s not first on the puck as often. He doesn’t have the ability to shift into overdrive. He’s reading and reacting more than initiating.

Looks like Nashville forward Scott Hartnell could be suspended after all - and possibly for two games.
Hartnell received two game misconducts Friday to give him three in this series.
According to NHL Rule 23.3, a player with two game misconduct penalties in the playoffs will be suspended automatically for the next game. Each additional game misconduct results in another game being added to the suspension….
“Colin Campbell is presently looking at the incident at the end of the game and the game misconducts are being reviewed,” said Mike Murphy, the NHL senior vice president of hockey operations.

In fact, if the Nashville victory Friday looked familiar, it’s because the Predators followed the same template that Edmonton used to beat the Sharks in last year’s conference semifinals. The Oilers picked off some of the young Sharks players, one by one, with vicious hits that put them out of action - and the Sharks never responded in kind. The strategy was to let Edmonton take penalties and capitalize on the power plays. But when the Oilers proved exceedingly good at killing penalties, the Sharks were sunk.
Until the Sharks do figure it out, opponents are going to repeat the formula. Why wouldn’t they? Wilson, the Sharks’ coach, is not a proponent of claw-hammer hockey. But recognizing how Edmonton had exposed a Shark weakness, the front office supposedly retooled the roster to handle a muck-it-up game if necessary.

Peter McNab
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The first-round series between the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators has been a very intense one early on, and there was more fuel on the fire after Alexander Radulov’s hit from behind on Sharks forward Steve Bernier Friday night.
Was it a suspension-worthy offence? I would say yes.
Now the number of games that Radulov should be suspended for depends on what the value of a playoff game is compared to a regular season game.